“Caller identification” of the calling party is a well-known feature of a modern telephone system. However, in the prior art the called party is merely notified of the “identity” of the phone number that originated the call using automatic number identification (ANI). This phone number may not necessarily be associated with the person who is using the phone. That is, an individual may be calling from a colleague's office or a conference room. The called party will only learn of the phone number from which the phone call originated (hereinafter, the “calling station”) and not the identity of the caller (hereinafter, the “calling individual”).
It can readily be recognized that there are many situations in which it is advantageous that the actual identity of the calling individual be provided. Just one such example would be a cell phone user who routinely relegates to his mailbox almost all incoming calls—except those from certain individuals.